Stir Crazy
by ferae naturae
Summary: What do you say, to a dream that won't go away? 'Coz I don't know if I can stand, it... A sequel to 'Catching Teardrops' *COMPLETE* PLZ R&R, it means so much!
1. Dreams

Sequel to 'The Beast Does Not Control Me' and 'Catching Teardrops'

Category: angst, hurt/comfort

Pairing: Shalimar/Emma

Authors Notes: I'm not sure about this whole fic. It's been in my head and on various pieces of paper for so long it's kinda lost its novelty. If you don't like the way things are going, yell and I'll see what I can do. If you do, review and I'll keep writing! Thanks to my Betas, foxyferal and rain for their patience! The summary is a quote from Charge - Splendid, I just liked the idea.

Stir Crazy

Katianna

Love, if I weep it will not matter,

And if you laugh I shall not care;

Foolish am I to think about it,

But it is good to feel you there.

Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking, --

White and awful the moonlight reached

Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere,

There was a shutter loose, --it screeched!

Swung in the wind, --and no wind blowing! --

I was afraid, and turned to you,

Put out my hand to you for comfort, --

And you were gone! Cold, cold as dew,

Under my hand the moonlight lay!

Love, if you laugh I shall not care,

But if I weep it will not matter, --

Ah, it is good to feel you there!

__

Edna St. Vincent Millay - The Dream

There was something wrong, Emma knew that. Something had woken her. There was an intense feeling of anxiety filling Sanctuary and she knew the emotion was not her own. She rolled over and tried to block the emotion from her mind; too tired to worry about whom would be awake at such an hour.

It was probably Adam. Things had been hard the last couple of weeks. Someone had managed to hack into Sanctuary's computer systems and there were signs of invasion into files that might compromise their safety and that of the safe houses. Having locked down the safe houses and made sure all of the new mutants were safe; the members of Mutant X were currently locked down tight themselves within Sanctuary. They hadn't been out for weeks now and there were no signs that anyone was going to try to attack them or break into Sanctuary, but Adam wanted them to keep their heads down until he was sure all was clear.

Emma found herself reaching out to her friends throughout Sanctuary. She often found that if the emotions of one of them were disturbing her she could find solace in the emotions of the others. Jesse slept with very clear emotions, reminding her of ice and crystals, something delicate but complex. Brennan slept, first with a tension that was all fire and fury, but which often lead to very deep and relaxing emptiness when he was in deep sleep. Adam, when he could be persuaded to sleep, slept the sleep of the very weary. A soft sleep, easily disturbed, but very soothing to the mind. And then there was Shalimar. She so often found herself drifting off to sleep with the emotions of her new lover surfacing in her mind. After several attempts to spend the night together physically they had decided that the beds in Sanctuary were not made for two and they would have to spend more time together in the day to make up for it. Quiet afternoons now often found Shalimar showing Emma sparing skills or Emma showing Shalimar meditation techniques. Evenings more and more frequently found them curled up together on a sofa, reading or watching a film. If nights were ever lonely they would reach out to each other, finding themselves wrapped in blankets together and watching the stars or simply feeling each other's presence within a psychic link. There was something warm about the thoughts that flooded Shalimar's mind whilst she slept, a protection and caring that the woman often showed her team-mates when she was awake. She rarely had nightmares, and when she did Emma knew exactly how to deal with them, because they were always the same.

It was always the team behind a wall of fire and Shalimar on the other side. They'd talked about it more than once, because after such a dream Shalimar had a very particular routine. She would visit Jesse's room first (sometimes she would sit in his room for a time and watch him sleep). Then she would check that Adam was safe in the lab, (if it were one of the rare occasions that he was actually asleep, panic would flare in her mind until she found him safe in bed). Then she would stand outside Brennan's door and listen to his breathing for a moment (she never entered). Then finally she would come to Emma. Sit beside her bed and smile at her, knowing that the nightmare would have woken her too, just through the power of the emotions that haunted her terrifying visions. Sometimes she would talk and sometimes she would sit silently until the tears came. It had scared Emma the first time she had cried. Though it seemed so long ago it could not have been more than a year. The feral had always seemed too strong to allow her emotions to escape her in such a way. But sometimes emotions could overwhelm them all, so she would sit and hold her until the silent sobs slowed and she pulled away. And she would smile again and thank her and then she would return to her own bed to fall back into the sleep of warmth and protection. And eventually so would Emma.

Was tonight one of those nights? Were the emotions that had woken her those of the disturbed dreamer?

'Emotions are strange things', it had once been said. A quote Emma would not argue with. They did not seem to follow the rules of normal space and time. An emotion could lurk in a place for a long time after its owner had moved on, or pass through space faster than light or even time itself. 'Normal' human beings could interpret some of the subtlest of emotions and be ignorant to the most blatant ones. Some emotions could seethe and eat away, and in the end it is these that cry out the loudest. Emotions were a lot easier to access than thoughts and much more powerful. This was one of the many reasons the telepaths of the New Mutant world numbered much higher than the telempaths, and one of the main reasons a large percentage of the empathic population ended up in an asylum at some point in their lives. Emma shuddered at the thought.

Taking care to position each of her friends as she opened herself up to Sanctuary. She was not surprised to find Adam in the lab, his emotions in disarray. He was tired and his mind was becoming clouded. She smiled softly, but it quickly turned to a frown. The emotion that had woken her had not come from their mentor. She found Brennan in a deep sleep that almost pulled her down to join him, but she was still curious as to who had woken her and that allowed her to escape sleep's grasp. Jesse's mind was crystal clear, he was sound asleep too. Which only left Shalimar, who wasn't in her bed, or even in her room.

When she found Shalimar she was startled by her closeness. She was in Jesse's room, but moving now. Something was different this night. The emotions that plagued her were not those of fear for her friends and surrogate family as they usually were after a nightmare. Tonight they were for her self, and a strange nervousness invaded her thoughts, as though not quite her own. Curious, and now completely awake, Emma watched the swirl of emotions that was Shalimar as it flexed and coiled. She was confused and unhappy, Emma read. She was scared and angry. And she was leaving Jesse's room.

~~

Shalimar walked the hallways, shivering as she thought of her warm bed. But she could not sleep. Though her body cried out for rest, her mind was unable to give it. Watching Jesse sleep, knowing he was safe, had soothed her as always. But more recently she had always found herself crying in Emma's arms rather than waking the young molecular as she had in the past. And subconsciously she knew that was where she was headed now, though her conscious decision had been to go back to her warm bed and leave her friends and her love in peace. She slid the door open silently; knowing she would make no sound entering the room and, closing the door behind her, sat on the floor beside Emma's bed. She leant her head against the wood of the bed's headboard and tried to clear her mind of everything except Emma.

Her eyes opened again as she realised why she couldn't find Emma in her mind.

"I know you're awake." She whispered.

"How'd you know that?" Emma asked, rolling over to face her.

"You broadcast emotions when you sleep. You have barriers up when you're awake."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's a wonderful feeling. Did I wake you?"

"Not coming in, I didn't hear you come in."

"But I still woke you."

"There's something wrong. What is it?" Emma questioned, carefully changing the subject. 

"There's nothing wrong, I'm fine." The response was too quick, too breathy; there was definitely something wrong. Emma reached out, brushing Shalimar's cheek with her hand, trying to offer reassurance. 

"I know you Shalimar. Something's wrong. Something's troubling you and I want to know what it is." Shalimar scrubbed at her eyes, trying to organise her words and thoughts. Trying to find a way to explain.

"I need you to not over react, or get upset or over react." She began. Emma sat up in her bed with a start.

"What happened? What's wrong? Are you hurt, did something happen? What? Tell me!"

"EMMA!" Shalimar interrupted. "It's nothing terrible, I'm just ill."

"Ill?"

"Yeah, ill, okay? It's not life threatening, I'll be fine, it's just messing me up a little at the moment. I figured you'd notice eventually, I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know."

"What is it?"

"It's hard to explain, I'm not sure exactly. It's happened before, more than once. It started when I was still with my parents. They used to lock me in my room if I did anything stupid like showing feral eyes in public. I never used to do it on purpose but I was a kid, I didn't understand how prejudiced people could be, how much trouble it would cause if someone saw me like that. Normally it would just be a couple of hours, like being grounded - a punishment. Then one day it wasn't

"I got really ill, being locked in there so long. I couldn't breathe, I was dizzy and I couldn't see straight. So I broke out and just ran. I felt so much better, being outside, not trapped. I've felt it a couple of times since then, but never since I've been here with Adam, and never quite as badly."

"Is it as bad now?"

"Not yet, but it's getting there." Emma moved out of her bed to sit next to Shalimar, embracing her tightly.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to wait until tomorrow, when Adam lets us out of here and I'll be fine. I don't want to tell him, he's worried enough as it is about all this."

"And you'll be fine, waiting until then?"

"I'll be fine. As soon as I'm out I'll be better and until then I" Emma could feel Shalimar tense, as she did when she had spotted or heard something she perceived as a threat.

"Shal? What is it?"

"I'm sorry." She mumbled suddenly standing, pushing past Emma and shooting out of the room.

~~

Disclaimer - I don't own these characters or situations, they belong to Tribune Entertainment and the rest, but I do own the storyline and writing. I'm not making any money out of this writing, I do it just for fun.


	2. Tears

----------------- Chapter 2 -----------------------

Emma found Shalimar several minutes later, sitting in the middle of the huge main hall of Sanctuary. With nothing around her, she sat perfectly still, crouched as if about to leap up the high walls that surrounded her, though it would do her little good as the roof topped them.

"Shalimar?" She approached carefully, not sure of her reception.

"I'm sorry, the door was closed, I couldn't I couldn't help it."

"Hey." Emma rested her hand on Shalimar's shoulder, hoping to feed some calm into the agitated woman. Her hand was quickly retracted as Shalimar span to face her with feral eyes. Emma took in the sight. Her face was flushed, her breathing laboured. Her eyes never seemed to focus on one point, flickering from door to door to tightly locked-down door.

"Shal. Look at me." Eyes, deep brown again, held hers for a moment before flickering on to their circuit.

"SHALIMAR!" Emma lined the word with a soft hint of her power and suddenly she had Shalimar's full attention. She took both of her hands in her own and pulled her into a tight embrace. She could feel the body wrapped within her own shuddering violently, a wracking movement that shook her whole lean frame. "Hush." She murmured in her ear. "Hush now, it's okay."

"I hate this." The voice was weak, shaking as the body was. "I hate this." She repeated, stronger this time. "I HATE THIS!" She was screaming, her voice echoing the walls as she sank sobbing into Emma's arms, dragging them both to the floor. "God I hate this." She sobbed into her shoulder.

"I know, baby, I know. But hush now, you're safe here." Movement caught her eye and she saw Brennan and Jesse appear at a doorway, both looking tousled, obviously straight out of bed. Seeing their questioning gaze Emma waved them away mouthing 'nightmare'. Nodding, Brennan headed out of the room, hesitating when Jesse didn't follow him. Noticing that his concerned gaze was still on the pair in the hall Brennan pulled him away.

Emma watched them go, listening as they encountered Adam in the hallway, soft words forming an explanation. Then soft footsteps echoed back into their rooms, followed by quiet.

Shalimar's breathing calmed slowly, her heart rate settled, the shaking reduced to nothing more than an occasional shudder.

"Sorry." The apology was hardly more than a croak in the empty space.

"You've not done anything wrong, Shal. This isn't your fault. But you know we can't get outside until Adam's rebooted the system. All of the doors are locked down while we're off-line."

"Yeah, I know that." She cleared her throat, using Emma's shoulder for leverage as she stood and pulling Emma up after her. "Go to bed Em, I'll be fine until tomorrow."

"What are you going to do until then?"

"I don't know. I might set up a simulation. I feel like I need to burn off some steam." Emma frowned at the suggestion.

"You sure that's a good idea? If you're not well you could get yourself hurt."

"I'm not planning on hurting myself Emma. I'll be careful."

"Try and get some sleep later?" She pushed.

"Okay, okay, now go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." Emma nodded and turned to go, stopping and turning back before she'd taken a step.

"You're going to be okay right? This will all go away when you get outside?" Her voice was filled with concern.

"I'll be fine." Shalimar smiled softly as she saw Emma hesitate again. Pulling her into another embrace she kissed her chastely, sharing a soft smile. "I'll see you tomorrow." She prompted, releasing her.

"Yeah." And she headed out of the hall, towards the rooms. The smile stayed firmly affixed on Shalimar's face until Emma was well out of sight, when it faltered. Finding a wall, she slid down it to meet the floor, struggling valiantly to restrain her raging emotions, knowing Emma would be back in a second if she let them spill out onto her cheeks.

She laughed as the first tears spilled. Emma no doubt already knew about the pain she was feeling; she would read people so easily when she was worried. She let the half-smile slip as a sob escaped her, joining the water on her cheeks.

In her room Emma felt as Shalimar's emotions broke, wave after wave of emotion reaching her. She rolled over, trying desperately to block the pounding emotions, knowing that Shalimar needed the release they provided. Letting her own tears fall for her love she prayed for the new day to come.


	3. Anger

--------------- Chapter 3 ---------------------

"Good morning!" Jesse greeted Shalimar loudly as he entered Sanctuary's kitchen the next day.

Jesse stepped back as he come face to face with a panicked feral, startled out of her reverie, as she leapt out of her stool and onto the table top, leaving her crouched on the surface at head height, tense and ready to pounce. Jesse raised his hands and backed off slowly, offering muttered nonsense in an attempt to calm the agitated feral.

An almost visible wave of realisation passed over her face as the tension drained out of her body and she slipped gently off the table and back on to her stool, her head in her hands.

Approaching cautiously, Jesse took a stool beside Shalimar and rubbed her back slowly.

"I'm so sorry Jesse." She muttered into her hands.

"Hey, it's OK. No harm done." Looking over his friend he couldn't help but notice her dishevelled appearance and, more worryingly, the shaking in her hands. "Have you slept Shalimar?" She looked up at him quietly before shaking her head. "That nightmare must have hit you pretty hard last night." Realising a nightmare must have been the excuse Emma had given for her behaviour last night, she nodded.

"You could say that."

"I've never seen you react that bad to a nightmare. Are they getting worse? You haven't woken me for a while." She started to explain, but he silenced her. "I know you've been talking to Emma instead, and that's fine. It makes more sense. I'm just worried about you." She smiled and knew she had to tell Jesse at least a little of what was going on.

"I'm just really not enjoying being locked in here like this. It's starting to get to me."

"I expected you'd get a little hyped up about this, but I never thought it would get this bad."

"No," She grinned wryly. "Neither did I."

"Are you going to be OK?" Unable to restrain the urge to move; run, fight, get out, anything to get out; Shalimar had to stand and move away from Jesse's comfort.

"Adam rebooted the system yet?" Jesse frowned at his friend's brush-off.

"I don't know, he said he'd do it later on today and vanished into his lab muttering about virus' and hackers."

"I'm going to check on him."

"No breakfast?" Jesse's question fell on deaf ears as Shalimar disappeared around the corner. "Guess not"

"Adam, when can we get out of here?" Adam looked up from the computer console as Shalimar appeared beside him. He did a double take as he saw how tired and flushed she looked.

"Shalimar, are you okay? You look terrible."

"Way to make a girl feel good about herself, Adam." She grinned. "I'm just a little stir crazy, I need to get outside."

"The guys said you were up with a nightmare last night. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm FINE, okay! Just jeez, give me a break."

"Okay, well" He frowned slightly as he turned back to the screen, checking the latest in a line of results. "I've done an internal check, but I need to boot the system before I can tell if any real damage has been done. The doors will be one of the first things to reboot so you'll be out of here in no time." Shalimar sighed softly and found a seat on one of the chairs in the lab. Starting up the next scan Adam turned to his young friend. "Are you sure you're okay Shal?"

"I don't know, I'm tired, but it's probably nothing to be worried about. Just not enough sleep."

"Still, we should check you out. We need you on your game if you're going to help us check out the safe houses this afternoon."

"Adam! Just sort out the Goddamned doors. Then you can prod, poke and scan me to your heart's content, okay?!"

"Okay" Slightly intimidated by the uncharacteristically aggressive behaviour from the feral Adam returned to his console and started up the reboot. "It'll take a few minutes to complete, your first exit will be the emergency one in the garage, okay?"

"Thank you." She growled, dashing out of the door. He stepped to the doorway to watch her but found Emma at his door. She smiled at his worried expression.

"She'll be fine."

"Do you know what's wrong with her?"

"She's just a little stir crazy Adam," She interrupted herself, "What's that red light on your screen?" She winced as Adam swore loudly at his computer, throwing himself back into his chair. "They've corrupted the system, all of the safety programs They've locked us in, we're trapped." Adam sat forward and began to tap on his keyboard, not noticing as Emma ran from his side out of the lab.

Emma found Shalimar in Sanctuary's garage, pacing a hole into the hard concrete floor at the base of the emergency exit shaft. She looked up as Emma entered, her frown immediately softening.

"Hey."

"Hey. Are you okay?"

"I will be as soon as Adam gets these doors open."

"The systems down Shal, it might be a while before the doors are open."

"NoNO!"

"You need to keep it together for a little while longer. Don't worry, we're going to get you out of here."

"I can't I just"

"Hey!" Emma interrupted her. Using one hand to lift her chin, Emma met Shalimar's eyes and smiled softly, offering all the reassurance she could. "You're going to be okay. You're safe here, not trapped, or in danger. I'm here with you and everything is going to be okay." A blond head nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact.

"I know that."

"We're going to have to tell Adam. We need him to help you through this." Expecting an angry response, Emma was glad when she continued to nod, a quiet agreement.

It was mere moments before she felt the tremors begin in the slight hands she held in her own. "It's coming again." Even her voice shook and she could feel her pulse begin to throb erratically, too fast, too strong.

"I know, I feel it, I'm here." Great gasps of air fought to maintain the accelerated speed of her heart. Getting worried as Shalimar showed no signs of easing up, Emma extracted one hand from the embrace and activated her com-ring. "Adam, I need your help."


	4. Explanations

--------------- Chapter 4 ---------------------

(Spoiler for Future revealed. Nothing big, if you haven't seen the episode you might not get the reference.)

Emma's hand was still tightly intertwined with Shalimar's as she was laid on the medical chair. Adam had grilled her for information as they made their way up to the lab and now he was busy over the scanner's controls. The first reading he took confirmed what he had already guessed. He administering several medications to suppress the symptoms and force the feral into sleep, waiting until she was sleeping soundly before he leading the rest of the team outside.

Glancing at each of his surrogate children his eyes settled on Emma.

"How could you think hiding this from me was a good idea!"

"She asked me to. She seemed to be able to handle it, it didn't seem too bad."

"She's DIEING Emma!" Adam shouted, his face reddening. Emma looked close to tears, glancing past him to where she could still see Shalimar, laid out on the medical bed.

"HEY!" Brennan pulled Adam back, out of Emma's face. "Cool down. We need to know what's going on. Shal's way too capable for her own good, she'd never admit she was hurting." Adam forced himself to calm down; regretting his outburst, realising his anger was with himself for not noticing the symptoms in his feral.

"We're all worried about Shal," Jesse took over. "But we need to know what's happening so we can help her." Adam sighed and rubbed his eyes, trying to reorganise his thoughts.

"Do you remember the feral virus?"

"God, how could we forget? So many of them died, and we thought we'd lost Shal" Brennan trailed off.

"All of those who died had a specific faulty gene." Adam explained. "The same gene was present in Shalimar's DNA and we were sure she'd died with the others, but somehow she survived."

"I remember." Emma responded weakly.

"Well, after we'd recovered Shalimar I did some research into the condition that caused the death of the other ferals. It was something that I was never told about while we were at Genomex. I'm amazed and annoyed I never found it in my own work I spent so much time working with the feral's genes" Adam cleared his throat, abandoning that line of explanation as Emma flinched at the casual talk of his job at Genomex. "Anyway, the gene couldn't be altered without risking the individual's physical strength, so someone made the decision that it was to be left. It only appeared in half of the individuals and it was manageable."

"What was manageable? What does the gene do?" Emma pursued as Adam paused again.

"Some animals, the squirrel for example, when trapped or kept in captivity will display characteristics that can be seen as suicide. In the same way this gene can trigger some kind of suicide in the feral body. It's normal for adrenaline to be produced when you're trapped. All that's different in this situation is that the feral can't stop producing it until they're effectively freed or they die. High levels of adrenaline allow us to get out of tough situations by increasing our heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels; simply put they increase the amount of energy we have immediately available to us. This might help us run faster from danger or be able to fight our way out of situations in which we're trapped. Over a long period of time high levels of adrenaline can cause all sorts of damage in the body. While the virus was around all of the ferals were a lot closer to their feral side so it started to affect them while they were trapped."

"We killed them by trying to keep them safe." Emma whispered, realising what Adam was saying.

"Unfortunately, Yes."

"And because Shal escaped, she wasn't caught or held captive and she was safe."

"Exactly."

"But she's been cured of the virus, how can this affect her now?" Jesse asked.

"Shalimar works with her feral powers all the time. She's always been close to her feral side. The virus wasn't the reason for the activation of the gene, it just brought it to my attention."

"She's genetically cleithrophobic." Emma put in.

"Exactly." Adam agreed.

"In English?" Adam smiled at Brennan's question.

"She will react adversely to any environment where she's trapped or locked in. It's not like claustrophobia, the space can be any size or any shape, it's the inability to leave at will that will trigger it."

"But we've been locked in more than once in the missions we've been on."

"Has she seemed more nervous, angry, violent than normal? Stronger? More aggressive?"

"Yeah, but"

"It's all caused by the increased adrenaline in her system. You've never been in these situations for long enough for it to advance this far. This about it, we've been trapped in here for over a week. I'm surprised she didn't try to break a door down or attack one of us or collapse completely."

"But Adam, all the others died. What if we can't get out of here?"

"Then she'll join them." The spoke quietly. There was a moment's shocked silence, everyone trying to process the information they'd been given.

"How long." Emma whispered at last.

"Too soon, I can't tell for sure. She's fit so she's stronger than a lot of the others, but I don't want to risk anything. I want her outside ASAP, or we're going to loose her."

"Wait a minute, your saying that just getting Shal out of Sanctuary will 'cure' whatever this is, that's killing her."

"Yes, but all of the door systems are locked down at the moment and I can't open them. All the electrical systems are down, even the emergency exits won't open."

"There's a side wall into the cave system that I can phase through," Jesse suggested. "It's the way we got in when Ashlock was holding you here. Can we get Shal out that way? It won't sort out the problem with the system, but it will let Shal out."

"Great. Jesse, Brennan, go and get Shalimar. If you can do it without waking her, all the better. If you can get her outside, just leave her there, she'll be fine when she wakes up. I'm going to work on the computer system."

"What about me?" Emma asked. "What can I do to help?"

"Get some sleep, Emma. If this doesn't work we're going to need your skills."


	5. Illusions

--------------- Chapter 5 ---------------------

Brennan stopped behind Jesse who had come to an abrupt stop. He could feel Shalimar shaking in his arms and her breathing was way too fast to be normal.

"What's going on Jesse? Why'd you stop?"

"This door." Jesse indicated the metal door they stood in front of. I didn't remember it from when we came through before."

"Well, now you know it's there. Wonderful. Now can you go through it? We need to get out of here before Shal DIES!"

"No, you don't understand. It's a system door; it's locked down with all the others. I can't get through it."

"What! Can't you just phase through it?"

"No, Adam thought of that when he designed this place. I'm not the only new mutant with phasing abilities, if it was just simple enough to phase through the doors other people could get in or out. There's an electronic shield on the other side. I'd get electrocuted if I tried to phase through it." Brennan had the urge to kick something but stopped short, wary of the unconscious feral in his arms.

"What are we going to do?"

"I guess we go back and find out if Adam can think of anything else."

"The guys are coming back, it didn't work." Emma muttered, not sure whether or not Adam was listening.

"Emma, how long do you think you can hold an illusion for?" She looked over at him curious.

"I don't know, I've never tried holding one. I just feed the emotions to the person and let it take itself."

"Do you think you could give Shalimar the illusion that she is outside? I can't keep her medicated without risking long term damage. I need alternatives. Thinking she's outside might affect her body chemistry long enough to get her out for real."

"Will it work?"

"I don't know, but anything's worth a try at the moment."

"Then of course."

"Get yourself ready, the guys will meet you in the medical lab."

She watched Shalimar closely as the others disappeared out of the lab, headed for various computer consoles around Sanctuary. When they were all effectively out of range she relaxed her day-to-day psionic shields, preparing to attempt something new. The feral's elevated heart rate, emphasised by the rapid electronic beep, faded into the background as she began her work. Slowly she gathered a picture in her mind. There was a wood to the south of Sanctuary where she knew Shalimar would go to think or when things got tense in the mountain. She had seen her coming out of them more than once, or sensed her presence in the trees, but had never been able to find the secret place where she would hide herself. Picturing herself at the edge of the trees she pulled together a collage of emotions which would take her there. When she was ready she prepared to project it to the feral, then paused. This wouldn't be like placing a simple illusion in the mind of another. To hold it she would have to get a lot closer and deeper into the emotions. She laid her head on her arms, resting on the side of the bed so she was a breath away from Shalimar's cheek. Slowly she slowed her breathing, watching curiously as blond hair shifted in response. Bringing the bundle of emotions that were the woodland to the fore of her mind she brought it between them like a solid thing, hoping to control the speed in which it fed from one mind to the other. Her breath became a hand holding a box that held the scene, like a snowstorm in a teacup. The box swayed like trees in the wind and Emma felt her powers take over and her eyelids close.

Emma was sat on the dry ground; dead leaves scattered around her, the air crisp to taste. It was autumn and the leaves were red and yellow in the woodland around her. The world vibrated energy like the sunset, and the canopy above her still held enough leaves to hide the sky. She heard childish laughter and looked around her, curious as to its source. There were all sorts of trees around her; pine, oak and yew and through the dense woodland she could see no one. Standing, she was trying to orient herself when she felt something hit her on the head. Looking up she could see nothing and, examining the object she found it to be a pinecone. There was one huge pine tree in the clearing and next to it a tall oak had thick branches that looked perfect for climbing. She smiled softly and turned away from the tree, looking around dramatically, in the wrong direction, for the thrower. There was a rustle and, turning again to look at the oak she found a blond girl sitting on one of the lower branches, trying to suppress a giggle behind a pale hand.

"Hello. And who are you, squirrel?"

"No!" The girl tutt-ed as though reprimanding the psionic for being silly. "I'm not a squirrel." She jumped from her branch, leaving Emma to gasp at the height as she landed softly in the leaves. "I'm Shadow." She held out her hand to shake.

"Shadow indeed? Nice to meet you." Emma took the hand and was pulled forward so that 'Shadow' could whisper in her ear.

"It's a nickname." She giggled again and looked around her as though someone might see. "But I can be a shadow if I want. Watch." And the young Shalimar promptly disappeared. Emma, still digesting the information she'd been given looked around startled.

"Wow, you're really good at that." She told the quiet woodland. "How'd you do it?" A tap on her shoulder made her jump and she span around.

"Now that would be telling." Shalimar, now fully grown, smiled. 


	6. Explorations

With my Betas snowed under with work, this is unbeta'd. Again, soz about the long wait but hey, three chapters at once! You can't complain.

--------------- Chapter 6 ---------------------

She was laid out on a hammock, Shalimar curled at her side. They had reached a point of balance on the precarious structure with much giggling and wriggling and now they both lay still, neither of them wanting to break the sense of calm that had settled over them. There was a strange stillness in the woodland, even the never-stilled woodland seemed to have become quiet for them. The continuous movement fading into the distance. Shalimar shifted a little closer to Emma, the creak of the hammock accompanying her sigh of contentment.

"I'm falling asleep Shal." Emma murmured. Shalimar laughed softly, placing a soft kiss on her collar-bone.

"Sweet dreams."

"I'm not sure that this will all stay here if I fall asleep."

"I'm not going anywhere, Emma."

"No, of course not." She breathed, allowing her weary mind to drag her away.

Lieutenant Commander Luke Rogers crouched quietly in a small dip in the hillside, sheltered from the noise of his men setting up their equipment in the valley below, readying themselves for the incursion soon to take place. He could feel it from here. The soft tingle in the back of his neck indicating that new mutants were near-by. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath, allowing his power to spread around him. The first people he found were his men, several flashes of red among the silently moving faint grey forms, signifying those who had powers of their own. But these were not who he was looking for. He trusted his men to set up the operation without him, he had to provide the intelligence on what they were facing.

He pushed his power deeper, into the ground beneath his feet. There. He could feel them now. There were two standing directly below him, bright red dots in the psionic distance. Their unique signatures telling him that there was one molecular and one elemental. That was two ticks on his list, only three more to go. Staying at the same depth he spread his psionic search wide, looking for the other three. Two he found quickly, near to the others. Two more red forms, though only just distinguishable from each other because they were in such close proximity to each other. As such he was unable to tell what form their mutancy took. He had a list of names beside him, five in total, but there was no specification over the mutancies these people had. He knew that there was one feral at least, but this seemed to be the only information that his employer was willing to give, warning them to take powerful sedatives with them if they were to be successful. He scanned the area quickly, and again, finally taking the search that little bit deeper before drawing back. There was no sign of the fifth person. He cursed, starting the scan again.

"Sir!" He winced but didn't jump as his attention was brought back to his body suddenly. The young lieutenant flinched as their leader stood, a scowl on his face.

"Report." He snapped.

"The techs say that stage one was a success, sir. Major Jame wants to report we are ready for stage two." Major Jame, their telecyber, was terribly efficient.

"Good. With their hideout locked down they have no-where to run but straight into our trap."

"Yes sir."

"Put stage two into effect and make sure the men are prepared. We want this to go as smoothly as possible."

"Sir!" The lieutenant responded, spinning on his heel and heading back into the camp. Rogers sat back down. The fifth target still evaded his detection, but he would come. Soon they would all come.

Shalimar sat up as she awoke, feeling the gentle weight of Emma laid across her legs. Shifting her slightly so that she could slip off the medical bed, Shalimar lifted her onto the bed in her place, laying a soft kiss on her temple.

Silently she left the room. She could see something different about the world around her, adrenaline coursing though her veins once more, turning her eyes feral and heightening her senses.

There was something there. Something...

She walked past Adam's door, not surprised at his presence busy in front of the computer screen. He held no interest for her so she continued on past, silently seeking out that something. Finding herself in the main hall she could hear Jesse sat in the chair above her, tapping away on his keyboard, he sighed angrily but she knew he was no threat to her, still seeking the something. Brennan she could smell, prowling the halls tensely. He wasn't the something, but she could tell she was nearing it now, the scent of it filling her. She walked further into the hall, spinning carefully as she lost the scent and then found it again. Finally she recognised the elusive something.

A breeze ruffled her and she smiled, feeling a little of the tension within her releasing as she stood before the door, open to the outside.

Wasting no time, she ran for the escape.


	7. Fear

--------------- Chapter 7 ---------------------

Adam looked up from his console as Emma dashed into his lab, breathless. Assuming the worst he was on his feet, ready to go.

"Emma, what's wrong?"

"I feel asleep and now Shalimar's disappeared." He relaxed a little.

"Do you know where she would have gone?"

"I don't know, but she's not in the medilab."

"Adam." Jesse's voice came over the comm. "I've found something in the system that I think you should see."

"Jesse, can you track Shalimar from the console?" Not questioning his order, Jesse set up the search immediately.

"The tracking is up, but the communications to her comm. link are still down and I can't access it at the moment. I can find her, but not talk to her. Wasn't Emma with her?"

"I fell asleep, Jesse. I lost the link." Emma couldn't help but feel guilty. She had relaxed while trying to help and now Shalimar might be in worse trouble than before.

"Emma, can you find her?" Adam asked.

"I'll try." Nodding and pulling her emotions back under control, Emma took a seat by the meditation pool. It took her longer than usual to relax into the state she needed to reach out to Shalimar, but when she found her she opened her eyes, started.

"Shalimar's outside." She spoke into her comm. ring, jumping as Jesse's voice echoed her words.

"We had no idea that the feral would be so strong sir. We didn't even have time to aim the tranquillisers. It was suggested in the intel we received that she would be unwilling to hurt anyone."

"What's the damage?" Rogers growled at the panicked Major.

"We have four men down and the feral escaped into the forest. So far we've been unable to track her."

"Bring your men out of that forest, Major, if she's violent then they're at more risk than is necessary. Send Red Team over and leave me with four of your men and the tranq. guns. The rest of you need to be ready to trap the others as planned. I'll deal with the feral."

Shalimar sat up with a start. She was in the forest again, but this time there was no sign of Emma. She took a deep breath of the woodland air, this was no dream or illusion. This was real. She whooped with joy and jumped from the high branch she had awoken in to the leaf-littered floor.

"Adam, Emma!" She spoke into her comm. ring. "I'm outside." There was no reply. "Brennan, Jesse. You there?" Still no reply. Shalimar struggled to remember how she had escaped, looking for an explanation but finding none. She remembered nothing since Emma had fallen asleep in her illusion of this woodland. Making her way to the edge of the woodland to try and get back to Sanctuary, her delicate hearing picked up sounds of movement.

Leaping into the branches of one of the trees on the boundary of the forest, Shalimar looked out curiously.

"The feral is somewhere in these forests." One man, dressed in a military uniform was addressing several others, pacing up and down their ranks. "She will not escape. The others are being captured as we speak. I want the guns on the periphery and I want Red Team in a straight-line formation between here and the base-camp." Looking carefully at the line of men Shalimar could see four carrying large weapons and four without. She wondered what the four without were going to do. "The elementals need space if they're going to use their powers. I don't want the guns getting in the way, understood?"

"Yes sir." All eight men yelled in unison. Absently, Shalimar wondered what type of elementals the 'Red Team' might be.

"Then MOVE OUT!" The commander ordered, the eight men turning and jogging to their positions between her and Sanctuary. The commander followed Red Team out to their positions, calling them all back into him for a moment. Shalimar strained her ears to hear what he was saying, needing to know what he was planning.

"She has to come past here if she wants to save her friends. Do what you think necessary. If the guns get in the way, flame them. They deserve..." Anything more that he might have said was lost to Shalimar in the hissing rush that filled her ears as she fought to remain conscious. Fire elementals. There were fire elementals keeping her from Sanctuary, from Emma.

All energy seemed to drain from her, the raw flood of adrenaline to take the already too high levels in her body that little bit higher, drive her heart that little bit faster, to as that little bit more from her already tired body. Her heat beat so strong that every beat shook her body and she was sure that her panting breaths could be heard by the four figures stood so close by, and the other four, even more threatening to her, that little bit further away. Her vision tunnelled and then faded out completely.

The leader walked away, leaving the eight men behind him and Shalimar, still unseen and unnoticed, unconscious high in the branches of a tree.

Adam sighed. "We'll worry about how Shalimar got outside later, for now..."

"Adam, I think I've found something that might explain that. There's a less than random pattern to the shutdown."

"A fingerprint?"

"Looks like it. It might be a telecyber, or maybe just a very good hacker, either way..."

"Do they have control over our systems? Could they have changed something without it alerting us?"

"It's possible. I'm working on it now."

"OK, Jesse you keep going. Emma I want you and Brennan to go round for me and check all the doors. If any of the system doors are open stay away from them but keep an eye on them. It looks like we might be set for an invasion. Let's just hope Shalimar is okay out there."

"Adam, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get in contact with the safe houses and start shutting down the network. Everything's backed up and we can take it all with us if we have to evacuate Sanctuary, but if whoever's out there manipulating our system gets in here, we need to know everyone's safe."

"Do you think we'll have to leave Sanctuary?" Emma asked quietly.

"I really don't want to contemplate it, but if Sanctuary has been exposed then it's no longer a safe place."


	8. Incursions

--------------- Chapter 8 ---------------------

"I thought Adam told us to check the doors." Emma complained as Brennan settled himself at a computer console.

"And that's what I'm going to do. A stage by stage work up of the doors. Any that are open will show up as green on this schematic..." Brennan trailed off as Emma walked away from him. "Emma?"

She stopped at the entrance to one of the main exits to the hall. "Wasn't this door shut earlier?" Brennan looked down at the console, noting with surprise that the door was indeed a system door.

"Hell. I'm going to give up. You should be running this show, Em." He joked. "Have you been able to connect with Shal?" He asked, seeing the worried look on her face in place of the satisfied smile he had expected.

"No. I haven't been able to find her since earlier. I'm so worried, Brennan. What if there are people out there and they have her..."

"Hey." He interrupted. "She's out there and she'll be fine." Moving over to the doorway, Brennan looked out. "This is definitely how she got out. There's a straight line right to the outside."

"Brennan... I..." Emma was interrupted by a feline screech. "Shalimar!" Emma called, running for the exit.

"Emma, NO!" Brennan called after her. He hesitated in the doorway for a moment. "Adam." He spoke into his comm. link. "Emma's gone after Shalimar. I'm going to follow her and try and keep her out of trouble." Before Adam could object he took off out of the door.

Rounding the corner Brennan came face to face with Emma, a strong hand clamped over her mouth and a gun to her temple, her eyes wide. A woman with long dark hair and feral eyes stood behind them. At his questioning glance the feral screeched, falling theatrically to the ground to pounce up again, laughing loudly. "Sucker." She mouthed.

"Now Sir." The voice came from behind him and he span to face the new aggressor. "I advise you don't make any moves to try and free your friend. Mr. Josh here," He gestured to the man with the gun on Emma. "Has quite the itchy gun finger." The man nodded, face deadpan. "And we wouldn't want this young lady to get hurt, would we?" He smiled insincerely. "Oh, and I wouldn't bother with any type of communication with the others inside. There's a low-level interference field covering this area, all communication devices are completely inactive. Follow me and we'll get you settled down shall we?"

"Yes!" Jesse shouted, jumping out of his chair. "Adam, I've got it. I'm in. I've started the clean up but once it's done we'll need a controlled reboot to have complete control of the system again."

"Is there much damage to the system?"

"None, it was all some kind of mask to make us think the system was down while they controlled it externally. It has to be a telecyber to do something that complex."

"I agree. Will the clean-up run its self?"

"Yes, but it'll take at least another ten minutes."

"Are Brennan and Emma's comm. links offline?"

"Um... no, they're showing on the tracer. But the communication's down, just like with Shalimar's."

"There must be something outside keeping us from talking to them."

"Do you want me to check?"

"No, say in here. When the system's back online we can use the security systems to find out what's going on up there."

Emma ducked quickly as a psionic blast ricocheted of the bars and back over her head. Sighing she sat down beside Brennan who was busy cursing loudly at anyone who was listening. He'd spent the last couple of minutes trying to use his powers to break out of the shielded cage they were locked in, but all he'd managed to generate were a couple of measly sparks which had died in his hands. Outside military guards laughed at their efforts. They had been strangely unaffected by the projections of fear and pain that she'd thrown at them, but one had almost been convinced to open the cage door to his mother before he'd been called back by his friends. She wondered absently whether it was the cage or the interference field that was affecting Brennan's powers. The man that had caught them had only said that it would stop any psionic attacks that she threw at it, he'd said nothing about electrical powers. It seemed strange to her that though he didn't appear to know _who_ they were, he knew exactly _what_ they were.

"Don't worry, Em. Shal's out there somewhere and Adam and Jesse are still safe in Sanctuary." Brennan reassured her. "They'll have us out in no time."

"What if Shalimar's in a cage like this somewhere, Brennan? It'll kill her. She won't survive being this trapped, not like she is at the moment."

"She's free Emma. You have to believe that. You can't give up on her that easily."

Rogers looked up, pulling back into himself from his most recent psionic search. There was only one red dot down below him now, the fifth person still strangely elusive. Perhaps their data had been incorrect, or maybe the fifth was away. Whatever the case, it was time to move in. His men were getting bored and he needed all of the targets in one place before those who were still absent had time to put into action a counter-attack. Standing up he rejoined the troops, calling their attention.

"We're going in. From what I can see there is only one inside, though there is a fifth missing. I want the mobile troops with me, the guards stay put and be prepared. Watch out for movement from over there," He gestured to the forest, "As well, understood? I don't want the feral escaping us a second time."

Jesse jumped up as soldiers poured into Sanctuary through the open door. Warning Adam on his comm. link what was going on, Jesse grabbed hold of a gun that Adam had set up for him in preparation for this eventuality and stood up to face the incoming army. He solidified as three tranquilliser darts from enemy guns came hurtling towards him. Dropping his shield long enough to dive behind a desk he called Adam again.

"Adam, there's too many of them. I'm not going to get enough time to get them all."

"Just hold them off for as long as you can, Jesse. I'm nearly done here." Nodding Jesse turned so that he could shoot around the desk he was using as a shield. Taking down three men with the gun Jesse moved a moment too late as one of their darts hit him and he faded into unconsciousness.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! Chapter Nine up some time this millennia.


	9. Reaching Out

AN: Some a/a coming soon, I promise.

--------------- Chapter 9 ---------------------

Brennan and Emma looked up as there was a cheer from the guards that had been left watching them. Unable to see what was going on from where they were they had to wait to see what was happening. The taller of the two of them, Brennan saw Adam and Jesse dragged around the corner first, but it wasn't long before all four of them were in the cage together. Jesse looked up groggily as the sedatives wore off.

"Adam?" He asked.

"Yes, Jesse. It worked." Adam replied to his unasked question.

"What worked?" Brennan demanded. "As far as I can see we're screwed. You were supposed to come and rescue us! Now we're all trapped in here together."

"The mighty Brennan Mulwray needed rescuing?" Jesse asked in mock-horror, sitting up with Emma's help.

"Jesse, this isn't funny." Emma interrupted. "What do we do now?"

"First, Emma," Adam spoke. "I want you to try and connect with Shalimar. We're going to need her ready if this plan is going to work."

"I'll try." Emma nodded. She took a seat in the corner of the cage, closing her eyes as if she would fall asleep. Holding a picture of Shalimar in her mind she reached out to her as she had done so many times before. 'Shalimar', she called 'I'm looking for you.'

She was running, running, running had to hide...

Flames licking at her heels, she could feel the heat burning

She was on fire, why else would she be so hot?

they had her, she could feel their hands

tightening around her chest, her heart, restricting...

there was fire, she couldn't escape

fire, can't escape...

Emma opened her eyes, breathless, flames leaving an afterimage on her retina. Slowly she became aware, through the white noise buzzing in her ears, of Brennan knelt at her side calling her name.

"Shalimar." She cried, shooting upright.

"Where is she Emma, Are you OK?" Brennan asked, steadying her. She nodded automatically, the gesture changing to shaking her head as she processed what she'd seen.

"No, no, no... There are fire elementals after Shalimar." She managed eventually. "She's so... she's terrified. It's killing her Brennan." She couldn't help the tears that escaped her as she tried to recollect herself.

Brennan turned to Adam. "She's not going to be able to help us, Adam."

"OK, well, Jesse you have five minutes and then we head to plan B."

"What's plan B?" Brennan asked. "Are you going to let us in on this or what?"

"Brennan, calm down and listen and I'll explain. We got the external cameras up a couple of minutes before they invaded Sanctuary. I saw the cage and recognised it immediately - I assume your powers are being suppressed?" At Brennan's nod he continued. "I saw the prototype when it was first put into production. There was some serious problems back then but I have no doubt it has been improved since. I've programmed the helix to do a fly-by and let off an electromagnetic pulse. It might knock you out for a little while, Brennan, but it was the best I could come up with at such short notice. It'll give Jesse time to phase us all out of here and we can use Sanctuary's systems to contain these people. There are more of them than I expected, but I think we can still carry it out." Checking his watch he nodded to Jesse. "Time's up." Grinning, Jesse turned and punching Brennan in the stomach, hard.

"I'm really sorry for this." He said quietly as Brennan keeled over. "But it's all we could come up with." Louder he shouted. "This is all your fault!" Within seconds the attention of all of the guards and many of the other soldiers was on the pair battling it out in the corner of the cage. No one noticed the small craft as it edged its was over the corner of the cliff. Emma was trying to keep her attention on the men, not wanting to reveal the helix's position, when a tap on the shoulder caused her to turn.

The feral, the one who had called out pretending to be Shalimar, was stood behind her. She looked nervous, as if she expected to be caught at any minute. "Your friend's plan won't work." Emma frowned, if the feral had heard their plan how many others had too?

"Why not?"

"The cage isn't suppressing your friend's abilities. Only yours. Rogers has the power to suppress them, but he can't affect psionics because he is one. That's why he's using the cage. All the blast will do is knock out your friend, you won't be able to escape unless you stop Rogers."

"Is Rogers the man leading you?" A brief nod was her confirmation. "Why are you telling me this?" She asked, curious.

"You belong to her - the one in the forest. I can tell. Rogers doesn't know what that means to our kind. If she knows he's threatening you... I don't want to be in the way when she comes back."

"But there are fire elementals in the forest."

"You think that's going to stop her?" The feral's eyebrow rose before she started at something Emma couldn't see and ran from the cage. Before Emma had time to think about what she had said an explosion and fizz of sparks from the console next to her, and then a larger spark from Brennan, pulled her attention back to her friends. Blue bolts still marked lines across Brennan's chest, shorting out as they reached the ground beside him as she watched. Adam pulled Jesse back as he went to check on him.

"Wait." He warned. When he was sure Brennan had finished discharging he released Jesse who quickly checked his pulse and breathing. Satisfied he smiled up at Adam.

"He's OK, just out of it for now." Diving for the wall of the cage, Jesse grabbed hold of one of the bars, breathing out heavily to phase a hole for the others to walk through as the guards checked on their damaged equipment. He kept breathing out, confused as to why the bar wasn't being affected. Gulping back a breath, he shook his head at Adam. "It didn't work, I can't do it."

"It's not the cage." Emma told them, quickly relaying all that the feral had told her. "I know what to do. I just need Rogers nearby." Jesse looked out of the cage trying to spot the elusive leader.

"I see him." He called eventually. "He's just over there." Forming a psionic blast, Emma moved to where Jesse had been.

"Duck." She warned. "Just in case." And carefully targeting the khaki clad man she let off the blast. She let out a sigh of relief as the energy ball passed through the cage's field and watched it hit its target... only to diffuse on contact, spreading out from him in tiny glowing blue streamers. He was beside the cage in seconds.

"You plane has been shot down. It was a clever trick, but a little too rough for me. And you..." He turned to Emma, his voice lowering to a growl. "I may not be able to suppress your gifts like I can your friends, but your measly talents can't harm me." Addressing all of them again he said. "Now lets see if we can't get that pussy-cat out of the forest shall we, and we'll have a nice little reunion. I'm bored of playing games."


	10. Setting free

--------------- Chapter 10 ---------------------

Shalimar took a deep breath, slowing her racing heartbeat. A brief brush with Emma's mind had calmed her greatly, but now she knew that the others were trapped and in danger and she had to help them. Making her way to the edge of the forest she was on full alert for any of the men who might have started to make their way towards her, but she could see and hear nothing out of the ordinary. As she reached the peripheral trees she stopped, immediately aware of the acrid smell of fire. Making her breathing as shallow as possible she fled to the top of one of the trees to look out into the valley next to the main Sanctuary entrance. The fire elementals had shifted so there were two on each side of her, channelling her down towards the men with the tranq. guns at the end of the enclosure they had formed. The fire elementals all held small pyres at their feet that they would use to steer her if she tried to escape sideways. They were trying to herd her towards the guns like livestock. But there was a definite flaw in their technique. There was nothing to encourage her out of the forest in the first place. There was nothing behind her that she knew of and nothing ahead that she would want to run towards, what did they think they were doing?

Just as she was preparing to begin a run out of the other side of the forest and all the way around the mountain to come at them from the other side, she saw something happening on the other side of the valley. Two people were appearing over a ridge that hid the rest of the valley from her. One was the man who had been ordering the troops around earlier, the other was Emma.

The man held no weapon but Shalimar didn't underestimate him. He was in control of all of the others here; he was in no sense vulnerable. He pushed Emma down to her knees and stood over her threateningly. It took all of her self-control to avoid revealing herself there and then. But that would do her no good, and it was exactly what he wanted. A chance for the guys with the guns to take a shot at her. She would have to bide her time and decide what to do.

As she watched a strange liquid glow seemed to emanate from the man, reaching out and grasping at Emma. She felt it's coldness, a shiver down her spine as it touched her love, wrapping her, engulfing her. She saw her wince as it reached over her face, trailing her chin. Then it was over her mouth and she was gasping for breath, panic in her eyes. "Call her." She heard the man say across the distance. "Call out, I know you can. Once she's out here this will all be over." Emma struggled in his grasp, a psionic blast forming only to fade away before she could release it. Emma's eyes met Shalimar's and she knew that she had seen her but she said nothing.

Despairing as she watched Emma's struggles become weaker Shalimar looked around her, taking into careful account the positions of all the people. She could do this, she thought. She took another count. Easy as pie.

She took another quick scan of the area and tensed. One two three...

She pounced, throwing herself from the branch high into the air. The gunmen all shot wildly as the feral sprang unexpectedly over their heads, the fire elementals unable to do much at all before she was long out of range. She was still in the air, almost flying, but she had one target and she knew she would hit. One Target. She was still in the air, would she fall short? She couldn't fall short; she wouldn't get another chance at this. Pulling her self in to position moments before impact, Shalimar collided hard with Rogers, her shoulder hitting first and taking him down. The glow withdrew into him, leaving Emma gasping for breath on the floor and Shalimar rolling back to try and slow herself. The gunmen had run the short distance, but before they could get aimed at the feral laying in the dirt they were taken down by a series of succinct kicks and blows. Rogers still lay unmoving on the ground. Assured of their safety for a moment, Shalimar was at Emma's side, checking on her. Lifting her into strong arms she carried her hastily down towards the others. Pausing as she saw the level of control the enemy had over the valley below them, Shalimar took cover in a nearby rock-fall as several more men with guns spotted them and started shooting. Emma dragged Shalimar's attention away from the others for a moment.

"Tell Jesse he can phase." She managed to cough out, still struggling for breath.

"JESSE!" Shalimar shouted on the top of her voice across to the men in the cage. "PHASE, DAMN IT, PHASE!" The young man looked up, registering what she had shouted. Grabbing hold of the bars he breathed out heavily and grinned as they phased in to nothingness. Seeing his chance Brennan jumped through quickly, fully recovered from the electromagnetic pulse, followed by Adam and then finally Jesse himself.

Brennan grinned as electricity gathered, crackling wildly beneath his palms. "Hell Yeah!" He crowed as it leapt outwards to ground two men who had been taking aim on Shalimar's position. Jesse stepped forward and massed as their attention shifted back to the newly freed men. That was all the diversion Shalimar needed, immediately rejoining the fray.

Her movements were almost automatic; no attention paid to where the next target was coming from or where her friends were, simply opponent after opponent after opponent. Anyone who came up against her fell quickly. When a psionic blast took out a gunman getting a little to close she moved on to the next person without thought as to where it had come from. When a massed form deflected a tranquilliser dart she sped up her movements to avoid their fire. When something sharp in the back of her neck knocked her forward she paused a moment, but moved on when she was sure there was nothing more to come. Her vision hazed, but she didn't need it so she continued, working on sound and sense alone. Her limbs became heavy so she put more effort in, swinging wildly, adrenaline pumping, heartbeat racing.

A familiar voice stopped an impending blow, calling out to her. But she didn't understand the words so she moved on, whirling off to the next threat.

"Emma, you have to stop her, use a psionic blast, before she does any more damage to herself."

A white heat threw her head back, a strange kind of pain which dizzied her for a moment, but she wasn't dissuaded, taking down another enemy, throwing the gun she had removed from his hands as far as she could away from herself.

"Adam?"

The words were offering something, but she didn't know what so she kept going.

"Do it."

And her vision filled with blue electricity and her muscles tensed sharply before she faded into a painless unconsciousness.


	11. Waiting

--------------- Chapter 11 ---------------------

"Emma?" Her name called softly pulled her from the blank haze of unconsciousness. She blinked in the harsh lights, lifting a heavy hand to protect her eyes. "How do you feel?"

"..." She tried. Licking her lips she cleared her throat and tried again. "Groggy?" Adam chuckled quietly.

"I'm not surprised. If it had been a bullet instead of a tranquilliser dart you might have been in serious trouble. As it was I think you took a dose meant for Shalimar."

"How is Shal?" Emma didn't miss the flash of pain in Adam's eyes as he passed over her question.

"Do you have a headache? Are you feeling nauseated?"

"Adam." Emma emphasised, panic rising in her. " Where's Shalimar, is she Ok?" Adam sighed.

"She fell into a coma almost as soon as we got back inside Sanctuary. She's in the other room." He rested his hand on her shoulder as she tried to rise. "Wait, Emma. You still have sedatives in your system, you need to sleep them off."

"Please Adam, I need to see her."

"Emma..." Adam sighed deeply. "Wait while I get a chair set up for you."

Two days had passed and still there had been no sign of Shalimar waking. Emma sat by her side once more, fixing a smile on her face.

"Hey, Shal. I have to tell you, you missed bacon this morning. I think Jesse was thinking the smell might bring you out of this. He's been a bit down. He and Brennan are taking turns watching the people downstairs while Adam decides what to do with them. I don't envy Adam at the moment. We had a brainstorming evening last night, don't regret that you missed it. We had _nothing_. Brennan was just about ready to suggest shooting them all to make it easier. We can't just let them go, you see, because they know where Sanctuary is and they could tell other people, or just bring more people the next time they try. It struck me, this morning, how trusting Adam was when he first let us know where Sanctuary was on a map and let us drive the cars. It was a huge leap of faith that we would be strong enough to resist if we were ever caught or - God forbid - we decided to 'turn to the dark side'."

She turned feeling Adam's presence at her back, smiling softly at him.

"Hey Adam, how are you?" He smiled and half-nodded at her question.

"Yes, good." He responded quietly.

"Adam, what is it?"

"Emma, you have to understand I would never ask this of you under normal circumstances."

"Adam?"

"I know your powers have advanced, perhaps further than you're prepared to admit, and I respect that you might not want to tell the others about these advances." He continued, glad she hadn't made too much of a fuss over this so far. "There are things in Sanctuary I might not want to tell them about for risk of losing their confidence. But I need you to do something for me. If you can't do it all of Sanctuary will be at risk."

Emma glared at the group of BDU dressed men and women behind the fireproof glass.

"One at a time." She told Brennan who was watching over the 'prisoners'. "Rogers first." She smirked at the handcuffed psionic as he was guided into a room nearby.

"Hey, Emma." Brennan stopped her as she made to follow him in. "You sure you'll be safe in there with him? I mean... my powers are completely offline with him around and he proved yours aren't going to do anything to him and... well..."

"It's not me you have to worry about." She retorted to his well-meaning insult, quickly turning and following Rogers in.

They were stood in a white room with no windows and only one door.

"What do you think you're doing little girl?" Rogers mocked. "You know your powers are no match for mine and you can't truly expect to best me in hand to hand do you? I could beat you even with my hands cuffed."

"You are now stood in a room which incorporates a... perfected design of the cage you so kindly demonstrated to us earlier. It is quite effective against all forms of mutation and is rather less vulnerable to electronic disturbances. Of course there is a way to bypass the system which means I have my powers at my disposal and you don't have anything but your... hands." Emma's eyebrow rose mockingly. She smiled internally as she saw self-doubt cloud Roger's emotions. "You're going to answer some questions, Rogers, and then you're going to forget all about this place."

"The telecyber - Jame - is extraordinarily good. He found Sanctuary quite quickly by hacking in through our external e-mails. Rogers stopped him from going to their contact 'Mr. White' because he thought they'd get extra credit - or at least larger pay offs - for initiative if they could hand us over at the same time. Mr. White is an elusive guy who talks through messengers. They never told him what they found because they were worried about someone else getting here first, so the location of Sanctuary is safe. They were never told about the underground or the database that we have here. They had no idea, and they still have no idea. They don't remember anything from the day before Mr. White first contacted them. It sounds like Mr. White was the one to put together these people as a team, they didn't know each other from before that." Adam nodded as Emma finished her report.

"I'm going to offer the new mutants places in the underground while we're sure they're not in contact with anyone who might turn them against us. Do you think that's a good idea?"

"You're asking my opinion?" At his serious nod Emma gave it some thought. "The feral's heart is in the right place. Her and quite a few of the fire elementals were only with Rogers because he offered them safety and a chance to get back at their creator," Emma saw Adam flinch but surprised herself by not being in the mood to coddle his hurt conscience. "They weren't in it for the money.

"Rogers is a lost cause, a nasty piece of work with too many ambitions. Jame... needs help. He's so locked up in what he does, he's barely conscious. But he could get there, so could all of the others. But they need watching; we'd have to be wary of them."

"What do you suggest we do with Rogers?" Emma felt a brief burst of elation - Adam was taking her seriously!

"I'd feel quite justified in killing him, but I don't think you'd approve of that." He smiled as he shook his head. Condescending - he didn't think she'd do it. She counted to ten. "Let me find out why he's like this. If it's something - some point at which he changed and became like this then I can take his memories back to before that point."

"You think you can do it without getting drawn into him, affected by his hate?"

"Yes."

"And what if it's the way he has always been?"

"Then I wipe him completely and we throw him out onto the streets as an amnesiac and see how long he lasts."

"Look lady, I don't know you. Just like I don't know anyone else here. What's going on?"

"Luke, has anything happened to you in your life that you feel guilty for?"

"What's this, twenty questions? And how do you know my name?"

"Sit down, please." She appealed. "I just want to ask you some questions."

Emma walked out of the room smiling blandly. She nodded quietly to Jesse as he watched Rogers back into the cell where he was now the only occupant. She kept the smile all the way to the lab, sitting placidly in the chair now stationed permanently at Shalimar's side.

Brennan appeared in the doorway just as the she broke down into heart wrenching sobs.

"Emma, give it up, please. The others are all safe now, in the underground or home where they belong. No one knows where Sanctuary is but us. Jame even gave us enough information to make out system safer. What ever it is you're trying to do with Rogers, give it up. It's not worth it."

"I'm waiting for an excuse, Brennan. I'm just waiting. And I hate it. I hate that I can't just..."

"Hey. Don't. You don't mean it, it's just his hate getting to you."

"You're starting to sound like Adam." He pulled her into a tight embrace.

"You know he's a smart guy, that Adam." A coughing laugh escaped her through the tears. "You need to get him away from you Emma." She nodded, wiping away her tears.

"Yeah. It's time."

AN: I'm not so sure I like this chapter. R&R and tell me what you think.


	12. Guilt

--------------- Chapter 12 ---------------------

Have you ever seen,

The sun's light failing,

Dropping, seeping,

Leaking from the sky,

Like blood from the fatal wound,

Like sap from the damaged tree,

Like water from the broken pipe,

Leaking drip by drip by drip,

Tentacles reaching out to pull in,

The last dregs of sunlit clouds,

To quieten the last bird,

As the animal mourns its passing,

Dispersing like dust on the autumn breeze,

Blown to distant places,

To trouble you another day,

Tomorrow perhaps, like every other day.

Emma scribbled 'Sunset' as a title to the quick poem she had jotted down as a chill breeze about her shoulders reminded her that day had passed and she hadn't brought out her coat. The trees around her were yellowing, seemingly as she watched, putting on their autumn colours, making her think of the scenes of her dreams. Where a young blond child with sparking eyes leapt from treetops and disappeared into shadows and an older blond with the same sparking eyes did things to her that would make the trees blush. She sighed. Two weeks. Two weeks since she had seen her smile, felt her touch, been held in her arms.

Rogers had been left in one of the worst ghettos Brennan could think of with false ID on him and no memory of his life so far. Emma shuddered at the memory of what Brennan had said as they had left him there. "It's kinda scary isn't it. The things Adam can do." It was obvious of course, with hindsight, that Adam had to have told them something to reassure them that the people they were letting free would not return to Sanctuary with ill intent, something to explain their strange behaviour. But somehow she hadn't thought that he would take the heat himself. Claiming that he had memory altering drugs to save Emma from the disapproval of her friends. Had it been the best thing to do. He was their leader. Their trust in him needed to be absolute. Brennan's fear of what control Adam had over them had taken a huge bite of her heart where guilt and confusion had been gnawing since she had first realised the full extent of her newly mutated powers.

Though she was cold she didn't want to go inside. She had been avoiding the others as often as she could since she Rogers had left, not wanting to share their anger and pain as Shalimar continued 'sleeping'. Brennan was guilty, filled with fear that it had been his fault because it had been his lightening bolt which had taken her down. Adam had tried to convince him that if he had not stopped her Shalimar might have died right then and there of a heart attack or stroke, her body having reached breaking point. But he was not to be convinced and his emotions were so strong they were almost painful to her, keeping her from sleep and taking away her appetite. Or perhaps her inability to eat had stemmed from other things. So much was happening, she was finding it hard to keep track of her own emotions, let alone those of the others.

She shivered as another gust of wind rattled through the tree she had found to sit in, shaking the thick branches and causing the leaves to raise a chorus of rustling. She was sure she heard something else, perhaps a squirrel or a bird in the trees around her. She sat still and listened. The leaves settled again. A bird chattered in a far tree.

A face appeared beside her that caused her heart to raise to her throat.

"It's kinda cold out here. What do you say we go inside?" Shalimar asked.

AN: The poem belongs to me (can ya tell?) hence the lack of accreditation. Tell me what you think.


	13. Admissions

--------------- Chapter 13 ---------------------

AN: I'm ignoring Understudy and everything after it because Nicki complicates things (and I haven't seen much beyond that), especially in view of keeping this as a sequel of The Beast and Catching Teardrops! Laurell K. Hamilton gets credit once again for inspiration, go out and buy Anita Blake Book 11 (Cerulean Sins) so she doesn't sue me.

Emma was frozen where she sat, worried that the slightest movement would stir her from this dream that she seemed to have fallen into. Shalimar dropped lightly onto the branch beside her.

"You're high up, I'm proud of you. What were you doing up here?"

"I was just thinking." She whispered, wondering if perhaps she had cracked. If Rogers had affected her more than she knew. "I was missing you." Clouds gathering unseen began to unload their heavy burden.

"I'm here now, no need to miss me anymore." Emma shuddered at the first drop of rain that hit her brow. "Come with me?" Shalimar asked. "I want to show you something." Shalimar took Emma's hand and in that touch it was as if the spell had been broken and realisation washed over her in one huge wave. She pulled Shalimar into a hug, regardless of the height at which they stood, tears washing freely down her face to mingle with the rain which was, by then, falling quite heavily. Shalimar pulled back and kissed her, softly, tenderly and full of longing.

"Do you trust me?" She asked quietly when Emma's tears had cleared.

"Of course." Shalimar grinned at Emma's heartfelt agreement and leant down, sweeping Emma off her feet and into her arms.

"Hold on tight." She murmured as she leapt from the branch, forcing Emma's heart into her throat for the seconds that seemed minutes as they fell. She held her breath as the earth rose to meet them but Shalimar seemed to slow as she neared the ground, leaving them to land as if they had only jumped from a small height.

Placed back on the ground Emma found herself led forward at a gentle run, Shalimar's hand on her elbow pulling her onwards. Slowing for a moment Shalimar turned to Emma with feral eyes. "Do you think you can follow me if I run?"

"Aren't we already running?"

"No, I want to _run_." She spoke the word as though it had an alternate meaning for her. As if it mean something more than what Emma could understand.

"I'll try." She offered. Shalimar grinned.

What she did next was completely unexpected. She disappeared.

Emma stopped and looked around her. There was no sign, no sight, no sound of her lover. Had it been a dream, a mirage? She felt tears gathering in her eyes again but before a drop could fall Shalimar was at her side again.

"That was too fast wasn't it." She laughed.

Emma was _running_. The hand in hers lead her, step by step at tremendous speed through woodland so thick she would never have thought to try to get through. The body in front of her seemed to have some power over the woodland because, as she stepped, the path seemed to open up before her, staying open only long enough for Emma to step through behind her before closing up and disappearing from sight. Rain stung her face as she ran into it, making her squint, but she didn't worry about not seeing her way. She felt like she was moving faster than she ever had before, but Shalimar didn't drag her so much as infuse her with energy of her own. She was out of breath when their run came to an end in front of a huge oak three, the rain making rat's tails of their hair and dripping from their clothes.

Shalimar led Emma around the tree's great trunk, too round for her to fit her arms around, to an opening at ground level revealing a hollow interior. Inside the rain did not reach, but it's echoing call as it hammered into the sides of the trees meant they had to shout to be heard by each other. Looking up Emma found that above her there was a platform of wooden planks built into the tree, easily accessible by a pattern of knots and holes in the side of the tree. Shalimar scaled to the platform with practised ease and Emma followed quickly behind.

Settling herself up against the wall of the strange room the platform formed, Emma let her feet dangle over the edge as she listened to the rainfall ease slightly. Curling up beside her, Shalimar lay her head in Emma's lap, sensing her need for a moment's quiet as the water dripped from their hair and clothes.

"What's bothering you Emma?" Shalimar broke the silence first, her voice quiet against the background noise of the rain hitting the leaves and trunk of the tree around them.

"Nothing." She replied automatically.

"Lair." That prompted a laugh. "What happened to the guys who attacked Sanctuary?" For a moment Emma's breath caught in her throat. What had Adam told her? Did she know? It only took her that moment that it was a separate question, that Shalimar wasn't going to press her about what was wrong. She didn't know how close she'd come to the true problem.

"Adam..." This had been what she had been afraid of. She couldn't lie to her. She could never lie to her. "I..." She sighed and closed her eyes. Composing herself she turned back to Shalimar, staring deep into her warm brown eyes, full of empathy and confusion. "There's something I wasn't to tell you, but it's hard. And I don't know how you'll react. Give me a minute?" Shalimar sat up, needing to be able to look at Emma properly.

"Sure, however long you need. I'll still be here." She offered, still frowning.

"Talk to me." Emma pleaded.

"What about?" Shalimar asked.

"Anything. How this tree got a tree house in it." She suggested. Shalimar thought for a moment, thinking about the story.

"Before Jesse arrived at Sanctuary I was the only one here and Adam pushed me really hard in training. Sometimes I just needed to escape and so I used to run into the forest just to get away. I found this tree one day when I got caught out in the rain, I wasn't ready to go back inside so I hid here for a while. There used to be a natural platform here, from where the tree had hollowed out oddly, and I found myself coming out here all the time. I stole food and kept it out here so I could stay out for days if I was in that kind of mood. This one time I was just about ready to do just that - I'd taken a blow to the head by a hologram and I was in a vile mood - and I mistimed the jump to get to the ledge because I used to jump instead of using the holds. I hit the platform harder than usual and it gave way. I broke my wrist when I fell and got a real telling off from Adam. I came out a few weeks later to mourn my lost hiding place and found this built." She tapped at the new platform. "I haven't been out here for a while. I haven't needed to hide for a while." She smiled softly as the frown slipped from Emma's face, if but for a moment.

"My powers have developed a lot more that I've admitted to you guys." Emma spoke quietly, the words almost hidden under the constant tirade of the rain. "Things are happening, and I'm not sure if I like what's happened. To tell the truth it scares me, what I can do now. I'm worried that if I ever got too powerful... that it would change me. That it would... change who I am, what my morals are. I've already changed a lot, I used to only use my powers when I had to, now I use them all the time, and I don't like it. It's like I'm loosing my reservations about touching other people's minds.

"I've always found ways to block people out, but I've always found it hard to do it completely. Some people's hate and fear and anger... it's just too hard to block out. It's too powerful in its own right for me to stop it. But I've found now that I can collect it, and expel it like some kind of weapon. Blow it out so that everyone around me feels what I feel, but magnified. And it makes me feel so good, because I'm getting rid of those emotions. But I hate it; I hate the way it feels, because I've seen what it does to the people who are on the receiving end."

"If it's a weapon then it's going to do damage, that's what it's for. "

"Not for Jesse. I never wanted to hurt Jesse." Emma's whisper was so quiet Shalimar almost didn't hear her, but she heard. Searching her memories for anything Jesse might have said, any change of behaviour. Coming up blank, something else occurred to her.

"That's not it is it? That's not the thing you're so afraid of."

"I made him forget it, Shal. I did it almost without thinking. I just didn't want to remember that, what I'd done, so he didn't. It was so easy.

"I don't want to turn in to someone who would change someone's memory without even thinking about it. Just because I feel like it. I don't want to be that person." Emma was almost shouting, her anger with herself echoing though the small space. Shalimar went quiet, thinking for a moment. "I don't want you to be worried that I might have made you forget something, something I'd said or done. I would hate that. More than anything else." Emma added, voice quieter now. "I don't want you to be scared of me."

"Answer me one thing." Shalimar asked, face serious.

"Anything."

"Why did you make Jesse forget?" Emma thought about the question.

"I didn't want him to live with the knowledge of what I feel. I was worried some of the emotions might be his own and he would recognise them."

"So you did it for him, not to hide yourself." Shalimar pushed.

"Of course."

"Then why would we ever be scared of you for that? You're protecting us from you, not protecting yourself from us." Shalimar smiled at the glimmer of hope in Emma's eyes. "Now lets get back to Sanctuary, I'm famished." She declared, lowering herself from the platform and helping Emma down behind her. "It's still raining, you ready to get wet again?" They laughed together as Shalimar took Emma's hand and lead her out again into the rain and Shalimar was relieved to hear the loose sound from her love.

They dashed through the rain as quickly as they would, slipping and sliding on the wet mud and slick grass. They were both laughing out loud as they reached the cover of the doorway and stood gasping for breath in dripping clothes.

Emma gripped Shalimar's arm as she slipped on muddy shoes and the wet floor and suddenly neither of them were laughing anymore. Emma pulled Shalimar closer, craving the contact. The stood silent for a moment before Emma leant down, brushing Shalimar's lips with her own. The heat seemed to flare in that touch, rising to consume both of them. It pulled them together hard until nothing else mattered but the other's touch.

Neither of them could say for sure how long they stood there, tight in each other's embrace, lips locked together in a kiss, but Adam had cleared his throat three times before Shalimar looked across at him. A dazed look crossed her face as Emma's attentions dropped to her neck, still not noting Adam's attempts to reach them. Seeming to finally realise whom it was who was watching she stepped away from Emma quickly, the heat tempered by another's presence. She called Emma's attention to their leader as he looked on.

"Adam," Emma choked out, looking up. "I didn't see you there."

"Hmm..." Was his only comment. "Shalimar, lab, now. Emma, go get dried off. I'll talk to you in a minute."

"Adam..." Shalimar started.

"No, Shalimar. We were worried. You've just woken from a coma and the first thing you do is disappear."

"Don't worry, Adam. Everyone's safe, I'm fine. In fact I feel better than I have for a long..." She frowned, as if considering what to say next. "For a..." Adam watched as she convulsed, folding in on herself to fall, unconscious into Emma's waiting arms.

"Damn you, Shalimar, you're going to be the death of me." Adam muttered under his breath as he checked Shalimar's vitals.

AN2: Wow, so near the end. I'm going to miss this fic...


	14. Love

--------------- Chapter 14 ---------------------

__

The hypothalamus controls the four 'f's

Feeding, Fighing, Fleeing and Mating.

(anon)

AN: If you didn't get it the first time, read the quote again. If you still don't get it, find yourself a sense of humour! Oh, and a tenner is £10 and a fiver £5. I'm sure you knew that already, but I had to make sure. I could have used dollars, but that's what fell onto the page while I was writing so that's what stayed.

Shalimar sat up on the bed once the scan had finished.

"Woah." Adam warned. "You need to keep things slow for now, otherwise you'll pass out again. I want you to spend a week with as little exercise as you can manage. After that you can have a week of gentle training and then we'll see if you're up to rejoining the team."

"Two weeks!?" Shalimar exclaimed. "I won't survive two weeks of lazing around!"

"Well if you hadn't disappeared off into the woods in the rain yesterday it might have been a week." Shalimar's face became serious.

"I had to go, Adam. I don't know if Emma called me on purpose, but she called me. I heard her voice."

"What did she say?"

"She read me a poem. A terribly sad poem..." Shalimar frowned. "I... I thought she might hurt herself, Adam. I didn't like what I was feeling. I found her in a tree, she was very high up." Adam sighed.

"We were all worried about her. She's been quiet recently, ever since Rogers left. She left her ring in her room when she went out yesterday." Shalimar winced. That gesture alone said frightening things about Emma's state of mind. "Things are hard for her at the moment. But you were there for her, and for that I'm eternally grateful. And she's looking better today than I've seen her for a while." Adam smiled. "Though why that could be I have no idea." He chuckled. "Oh, and that reminds me. I want you and Emma to ease off a bit, for a week at least. And I'm completely serious Shalimar. If you drive your adrenaline levels too high at the moment passing out is the least of your worries. I don't want you having a stroke or a heart attack at your age just because you couldn't keep your hands off each other." Shalimar blushed.

"A week?"

"Go on, get out, shoo. Get out of my sight. Go see the others, they're worried."

One Week Later...

Emma, Brennan and Jesse sat watching a movie in the rec. area. Emma looked back over the arm of the chair. She could see Shalimar discussing something with Adam in the lab but couldn't hear what they were discussing over the noise of the film. She turned to find Brennan and Jesse watching her.

"What?" The guys snorted in laughter. "_What_?" She demanded.

"Can you go for ten minutes without watching her?" Jesse asked, teasingly.

"Of course I can." Emma retorted.

"Tenner says you can't." Brennan challenged.

"You're on." She accepted. Jesse lifted his watch to show the timer on the display.

"Ten minutes it is." Emma sighed and turned back to the film. It had been the guy's choice of film. She didn't even know what it was called. Tuning out the gunshots on the screen Emma tried to focus on the lab. Shalimar had explained to her once how she focused on a quiet noise when there was a lot of background noise; it sounded surprisingly similar to a meditation technique she knew. Quieting her mind she fought not to shut her eyes, that would let the boys know she was cheating. Turning her head slightly she tried to find the right place to listen.

"...with Emma..." The words made her jump at their clarity, making both of the guys look at her. Before she could stop herself she looked over at Shalimar, who's voice it had been speaking. She looked undeniably happy about something. Realising what she'd done she turned back to the others.

"Oops." Jesse whooped and they did a high five across the sofa.

"Fiver each! So what you going to do with yours, Brennan?" Jesse asked.

"Hey, no, wait a minute. It was my bet. I get the whole Ten!" Emma looked away and found Shalimar at her side.

"What are they arguing about?" She asked. Emma blushed.

"Nothing."

"Whatever. Come with me, I want to show you something."

"That sounds familiar." Emma commented laughingly.

"Oh, this thing is much better." Shalimar grinned, leading Emma away.

Jesse looked up from their argument as the two left. Spotting Adam in the doorway he called him over.

"Hey Adam, what's going on?"

"Do you remember the rooms upstairs you and Shalimar found all those years ago?"

"The ones you used to use to hide new mutants, before the safe houses? Of course, what about them?"

"Emma and Shalimar are going to be... making use of one of the double beds. From tonight."

"Did I really need to know that?" Jesse asked, frowning. "They're like, sisters to me."

"Hey, you asked." Adam retorted.

"Yeah, I suppose I did." He muttered.

Though little sleep was had that night by Shalimar and Emma, both could be sure that for many nights to come neither mind would be stirred by dreams of fire and futility. May it be for us all.

__

Love, if you laugh I shall not care,

But if I weep it will not matter, --

Ah, it is good to feel you there!

~The Dream, Edna St. Vincent Millay


End file.
